Traveling While Trans

I am always very nervous when I travel out of the northeast. I particularly wary of traveling aboard or to the Caribbean, if you look at the list of names on the Transgender Day of Remembrance website you will find a high number of trans-people killed are from the Caribbean and Central America.

I saw a post on TransGriot blog that made me want to write about this topic and it got me thinking, will I ever be able to travel to the Caribbean. When I think of the islands of the Caribbean I think of this…

Cruising for a Bruisin’ When Cruise Lines Dock at Anti-Gay Ports
by Steffany Skelley Gilmer
EDGE Contributor
Sunday Dec 23, 2012

You may fly into Miami, ready to forget your troubles with a week-long cruise in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, even in this day and age, LGBT citizens need to practice caution when planning a trip out of the country. Many ports of call here are homophobic. It is imperative that you educate yourself to the laws of your travel destinations -- your freedom could depend on it.

This year, two gay American men traveling on a cruise were accused of having sexual intercourse on the ship while it was docked at Dominica. Police boarded the ship and arrested the men on suspicion of indecent exposure and "buggery," the local equivalent to sodomy on the island.

I just shiver when I think about touring some of the island; their commercials show loving couples at sunset walking the beaches hand in hand but what would they do to an Out trans-woman? Will they welcome her with open arms or with a bat?

The article goes to say,

Same-sex sexual activity is not only illegal on the following islands, there are also penalties of imprisonment of at least ten years.

Barbados: (Life sentence)
Antigua and Barbuda: (15 years in prison)
Dominica: (10 years in prison)
Grenada: (Male: illegal and 10 year prison sentence. Female: legal)
Jamaica: (Male: illegal and 10 year sentence to hard labor. Female: legal)
Saint Kitts and Nevis: (Male: illegal and 10 year sentence. Female: legal)
Saint Lucia: (Male: illegal and a fine and/or 10 year sentence. Female: legal)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: (Fine and/or 10 years)
Trinidad and Tobago: (25 years prison sentence)

The barbaric laws of yesteryear still apply to some islands and LGBT travelers need to be wary of the ever-present threat of homophobia abroad. Foreign laws apply not just to locals but also to travelers and if you are arrested or detained don’t count on your cruise ship to wait for you. Many travelers have been left behind because they didn’t return to the ship before boarding time.

Notice nothing is mention about trans-people.

So I am a little leery when I read something like this…

Kamla praised for moves to remove laws against gays
Guardian Media
Published: December 29, 2012

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been congratulated by regional and international organisations on her commitment to end discrimination against gay people in T&T [Trinidad and Tobago]. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an organ of the Organisation of American States (OAS), issued a statement on December 20 welcoming Persad-Bissessar’s comments in a letter to Lance Price of the UK-based Kaleidoscope Trust.

Will suddenly violence against LGBT people end with a stroke of a pen? Will it automatically change cultural bias? Also it says “end discrimination against gay people” does that also include trans-people?

I know that I will never visit the Caribbean, the only place I would even remotely consider traveling to are the Virgin Islands because they are the US and British territories; however, Puerto Rico is a little too iffy for me, there are parts that are trans-friendly but everywhere else I would be nervous in going there by accident.